nkhandic-py — Python wrapper for the NK-HanDic MeCab dictionary

👉 NK-HanDic (dictionary) repository: https://github.com/okikirmui/nkhandic

nkhandic is a Python helper package that makes it easy to use NK-HanDic, a MeCab dictionary for North Korean, from Python code.

⚠️ Important distinction

• NK-HanDic = the MeCab dictionary itself (linguistic resource)
• nkhandic (this package) = a Python interface / utility layer for HanDic

The dictionary is developed and published separately;
this package focuses on Python usability.

If you need for a contemporary Korean, please check HanDic (MeCab dictionary) and handic (Python wrapper).

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Overview

nkhandic provides a convenient Python interface for the NK-HanDic North Korean morphological analysis dictionary.

It allows researchers and developers to perform North Korean morphological analysis from Python without manually configuring dictionary paths or MeCab options.

The package:

• Bundles a snapshot of the NK-HanDic dictionary
• Provides high-level Python APIs
• Handles Jamo-based input/output
• Supports Hanja-aware representations
• Works across Linux, macOS, and Windows environments

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Relationship between NK-HanDic and this package

NK-HanDic (dictionary repository)
        ↓
   MeCab dictionary files
        ↓
  nkhandic (Python wrapper)
        ↓
  Your Python code

• The linguistic design and dictionary entries live in the NK-HanDic repository
• This package bundles a released snapshot of the dictionary only to enable Python use
• Updates to dictionary content are driven by the NK-HanDic project

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🚀 Quick Start (Python)

Installation

pip install nkhandic mecab-python3 jamotools

Minimal example

import nkhandic

text = "총비서동지께서 다음과 같이 말씀하시였다."

print(nkhandic.tokenize_hangul(text))
print(nkhandic.pos_tag(text))
print(nkhandic.convert_text_to_hanja_hangul(text))

Example output

[('총비서', 'NNG'), ('동지006', 'NNG'), ('께서', 'JKS'), ('다음01', 'NNG'), ('과12', 'JKB'), ('같이', 'MAG'), ('말씀', 'NNG'), ('하다02', 'XSV'), ('시', 'EP'), ('ㅆ', 'EP'), ('다06', 'EF'), ('.', 'SF')]
['총비서', '동지', '께서', '다음', '과', '같이', '말씀', '하', '시여', 'ㅆ', '다', '.']
總秘書同志께서 다음과 같이 말씀하시였다.

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High-level API (Python convenience layer)

tokenize_hangul(text)

Return a list of tokens in Hangul base form(Unified Hangul Code).

• Internally uses NK-HanDic via MeCab
• Automatically restores Hangul syllables from Jamo
• Robust against unknown words

If you want to obtain tokens in surface form instead of base form, specify “surface” for the mode option.

example:

text = "말씀하시였다."

nkhandic.tokenize_hangul(text, mode="surface")
# ['말씀', '하', '시여', 'ㅆ', '다', '.']

nkhandic.tokenize_hangul(text)
# ['말씀', '하다02', '시', 'ㅆ', '다06', '.']

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tokenize(text)

Return tokens in Jamo surface form.

• Low-level wrapper around MeCab

text = "어쩌면 그리도 위대하신가."

nkhandic.tokenize(text)
# ['어쩌면', '그리도', '위대', '하', '시', 'ᆫ가', '.']

tokenize() vs tokenize_hangul()

• tokenize() returns raw surface strings in Jamo form from MeCab output.
• tokenize_hangul(mode="surface") returns surface forms in composed Hangul using the feature fields (7th feature).

In short, tokenize() preserves the original Jamo sequence, while tokenize_hangul() provides normalized Hangul strings.

Example

# Jamo strings are longer because each Hangul syllable is decomposed
input = '말씀하시였다.'

for item in nkhandic.tokenize(input):
    print(f"{item} : {len(item)}")
# -> 말씀:6, 하:2, 시여:4, ᆻ:1, 다:2, .:1

for item in nkhandic.tokenize_hangul(input, mode="surface"):
    print(f"{item} : {len(item)}")
# -> 말씀:2, 하:1, 시여:2, ᆻ:1, 다:1, .:1

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pos(text) — lightweight POS

Return (surface, coarse_pos) pairs.

• Surface is returned in Jamo surface form
• POS corresponds to the first feature field

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pos_tag(text)

Return a list of (token, POS) tuples.

• Uses HanDic base forms(Unified Hangul Code) when available
• Falls back to surface forms for unknown words
• POS tags are based on the Sejong tag set(see https://docs.komoran.kr/firststep/postypes.html)

The following is an example for comparing pos() and pos_tag().

text = "말씀하시였다."

nkhandic.pos(text)
# [('말씀', 'Noun'), ('하', 'Suffix'), ('시여', 'Prefinal'), ('ᆻ', 'Prefinal'), ('다', 'Ending'), ('.', 'Symbol')]

nkhandic.pos_tag(text)
# [('말씀', 'NNG'), ('하다02', 'XSV'), ('시', 'EP'), ('ㅆ', 'EP'), ('다06', 'EF'), ('.', 'SF')]

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parse(text)

Return raw MeCab output string.

• Includes all feature fields
• Intended for advanced use

print(nkhandic.parse("이제 우리앞에는 5개년계획기간이 2년 남아있다."))

output:

이제	Adverb,一般,*,*,*,이제01,이제,*,*,A,MAG
우리	Noun,代名詞,*,*,*,우리03,우리,*,*,A,NP
앞	Noun,普通,*,*,*,앞,앞,*,*,A,NNG
에	Ending,助詞,処格,*,*,에04,에,*,*,*,JKB
는	Ending,助詞,題目,*,*,는01,는,*,*,*,JX
5	Symbol,数字,*,*,*,*,*,*,*,*,SN
개년	Noun,依存名詞,助数詞,*,*,개년03,개년,個年,*,*,NNB
계획	Noun,普通,動作,*,*,계획01,계획,計劃,*,A,NNG
기간	Noun,普通,*,*,*,기간07,기간,期間,*,B,NNG
이	Ending,助詞,主格,*,*,이25,이,*,*,*,JKS
2	Symbol,数字,*,*,*,*,*,*,*,*,SN
년	Noun,依存名詞,助数詞,*,*,년02,년,年,*,A,NNB
남아	Verb,自立,*,語基3,*,남다01,남아,*,*,B,VV
있	Verb,非自立,*,語基1,3接続,있다01,있,*,*,A,VX
다	Ending,語尾,終止形,*,1接続,다06,다,*,*,*,EF
.	Symbol,ピリオド,*,*,*,.,.,*,*,*,SF
EOS

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convert_text_to_hanja_hangul(text)

Convert text into mixed Hanja + Hangul representation.

• Uses HanDic feature field (index 7)
• Preserves whitespace and punctuation
• Converts remaining Jamo into complete Hangul syllables

⚠️ Caution

It may be possible to misidentifying homonyms. e.g. 자신: 自信/自身

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Platform compatibility (important update)

Recent versions of nkhandic include a more robust MeCab initialization layer to improve cross‑platform compatibility.

Earlier versions could fail on Windows or Conda environments due to platform-specific path handling issues.

Typical errors included:

[ifs] no such file or directory: /dev/null

or failures caused by Windows path escaping when dictionary paths contained spaces.

Improvements

The initialization logic now:

• Uses os.devnull instead of /dev/null
• Automatically quotes dictionary paths
• Normalizes Windows paths to forward-slash format
• Improves MeCab argument handling

These changes make the package more reliable on:

• Windows 10 / 11
• Miniconda / Anaconda environments
• Python installations where the dictionary path contains spaces

Most users do not need to change their code.

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Low-level access (for compatibility)

import handic

print(nkhandic.DICDIR)   # path to bundled NK-HanDic snapshot
print(nkhandic.VERSION)  # NK-HanDic dictionary version

These are provided mainly for backward compatibility and inspection.

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Typical use cases

• Using HanDic conveniently from Python
• North Korean corpus analysis and language education research
• Preprocessing North Korean text for NLP pipelines
• Exploring Hangul / Hanja correspondences in North Korean

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Features

Here is the list of features included in NK-HanDic. For more information, see the HanDic 품사 정보.

• 품사1, 품사2, 품사3: part of speech(index: 0-2)
• 활용형: conjugation "base"(ex. 語基1, 語基2, 語基3)(index: 3)
• 접속 정보: which "base" the ending is attached to(ex. 1接続, 2接続, etc.)(index: 4)
• 사전 항목: base forms(index: 5)
• 표층형: surface(index: 6)
• 한자: for sino-words(index: 7)
• 보충 정보: miscellaneous informations(index: 8)
• 학습 수준: learning level(index: 9)
• 세종계획 품사 태그: pos-tag(index: 10)
• 조선어 표시: North Korean marker(index: 11)
• 조선어 보충 정보: misc. informations about North Korean(index: 12)

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Citation

When citing dictionary content, please cite the NK-HanDic project:

NK-HanDic: morphological analysis dictionary for North Korean
https://github.com/okikirmui/nkhandic

When citing this Python package, please cite both the package and NK-HanDic.

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License

This code is licensed under the MIT license. NK-HanDic is copyright Yoshinori Sugai and distributed under the BSD license.

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Acknowledgment

This repository is forked from unidic-lite with some modifications and file additions and deletions.